Show will feature array of local musicians

The title of Park City's piano man Rich Wyman's new CD "Good Company" comes from a phrase he often uses.

"Those words come up whether I'm around friends, family, musicians I play with, people I socialize with or people I protest with," Wyman said during an interview. "It's always nice be around good company."

Wyman will hope to find some of those people in the audience when he perform a his official CD release party at the State Room in Salt Lake City on Friday, Oct. 5.

The concert will feature an array of Park City musicians all of whom helped him record the CD.

The lineup will include violinist Liz Anderson, saxophonist George T. Gregory, guitarist Terence Hansen, Joy Tlou and Eric Sopanen of Joy & Eric will be there.

"I pulled together a show with as many as them as I could," Wyman explained.

To give each artist some time in the spotlight, Wyman organized a performance that was inspired by The Band's 1978 concert film "The Last Waltz."

"During the first set, I'll perform with each guest musician individually," he said. "For the second set, everyone will join me on stage and we'll perform the album tracks in order from start to finish. I'm excited to do that."

Wyman began creating "Good Company" back in 2008.

"I began writing a lot of the songs when the recession hit," he said.

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"I was unemployed for a while because the entertainment budgets for many venues during that winter had disappeared and there were a few months when I didn't play.

"I wasn't stressed out or worried and felt everything happens for a reason," Wyman said. "I felt I was given this gift of time, so I just sat down and wrote. I wrote one song a day, five days a week for a month."

While he was writing the title track to "Good Company," Wyman wanted to experiment.

"Back in Elvis Presley's day, the songs would have three chords that would go around in circles, but then the bridge would move them up the scale a bit," he said. "A lot of pop songs these days have four chords that go around in circles. People like Lady Gaga, Katy Perry and Train use this method, but I've noticed that they don't change the chord at all. So, I just wanted to see if could write a song that simple and I did."

After the songs were written, Wyman bumped into the local funk band Shaky Trade during the Sundance Film Festival in 2009.

"They seemed like the perfect rhythm section for the songs I was writing," Wyman said.

The band and Wyman began recording the CD in a studio in Ogden.

"I funded the sessions out of pocket and we banged out six or seven songs," Wyman said. "But then I got frustrated with the commute, and decided to put the brakes on the album."

After a few months, Wyman ran into producer David Rolf who had just moved here from Atlanta, where the economy took a toll on the recording-studio business.

"David asked to hear the tracks and told me he wanted to see what he could do with them, and after I heard his production, we made a deal to continue the recording sessions," Wyman said.

After raising funds through www.kickstarter.com , Wyman and Rolfe finished the CD at the end of 2011.

"Good Company" was officially released in the Netherlands in the spring of 2012, and had a soft-release after Wyman returned to the United States to open Mountain Town Music's Newpark Concert Series.

Now, Wyman will officially play a bona fide CD release party this Friday.

"During the past couple of years, the State Room has become my favorite venue," he said. "I know the owners and it seemed like the perfect fit. It's just a great little place that doesn't seem to get over crowded, but at the same time fits a lot of people. Hopefully a lot of people from Park City will come down."

Rich Wyman will play a CD release concert at the State Room, 638 S. State Street in Salt Lake City, on Friday, Oct. 5, at 9 p.m. Tickets are $12. Tickets can be purchased at www.thestateroomslc.com/ shows/item/385-rich-wyman-fri-oct-5. The first 75 people in the doors will receive a free copy of Wyman's latest CD "Good Company."

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